A box is typically made from a blank of cardboard or the like having a central polygonal floor panel from whose sides project side panels. The apparatus for making boxes from such blanks has a feeder for supplying cardboard blanks to the apparatus and a folder for folding the cardboard blanks. In top view, it is advantageous for the cardboard blank and/or a cardboard box that is to be folded to be rectangular and/or square. It is within the scope of the invention for the cardboard box that is to be folded to be upwardly open.
Cardboard folders of the type as described above are known from practice in various constructions. The known devices are typically characterized by relatively complex and/or time-consuming process steps. Many apparatuses of the type as described above have a pickup tool that picks up the cardboard blank from a stack of cardboard blanks. This pickup tool transfers the cardboard blank it has picked up from the stack to a feed tool, and the feed tool supplies the cardboard blank to the folder. The operating speeds and/or safety of these known cardboard-folding apparatuses are far from perfect. The processing is comparatively complex in these devices, plus they are susceptible to breakdowns. The cardboard-folding apparatuses that are known in practice suffer, furthermore, from the considerable disadvantage that they require a great deal of space and/or are quite voluminous in design.